U.S.
Department of DefenseOffice of the Assistant Secretary of Defense
(Public Affairs)News Release

IMMEDIATE RELEASE No. 081-07January 24, 2007

DoD Identifies Army Casualties

The Department of Defense announced today the
death of 12 soldiers who were supporting Operation Iraqi Freedom. They
died in Baghdad, Iraq, on January
20, 2007, when the UH-60 Black Hawk helicopter they were in crashed.

First Sergeant William T. Warren, 48, of North
Little Rock, Arkansas, who was assigned to the Arkansas Army National Guard’s
1st Battalion, 185th Aviation Regiment (Air Assault), 77th Aviation Brigade,
Camp Robinson, Arkansas.

The incident is under investigation.

For information on Allgood, the media can contact
the European Regional Medical Command public affairs office at 011-49-6221-17-3317.

For information on Booker and Kelly, the media
can contact the Virginia National Guard public affairs office at (434)
298-6107.

For information on Brown, Taylor and Warren,
the media can contact the Arkansas National Guard public affairs office
at (501) 212-5020.

For information on Canegata and Lake, the media
can contact the Virgin Islands National Guard public affairs office at
(340) 712-7750.

For information on Gabbard, the media can contact
the Iowa National Guard public affairs office at (515) 252-4582.

For information on Haller, the media can contact
the Maryland National Guard public affairs office at (410) 576-6179.

For information on Langarica, the media can
contact the Fort Huachuca public affairs office at (520) 533-2752.

For information on Lyerly, the media can contact
the Texas National Guard public affairs office at (512) 782-1034.

A senior enlisted soldier in the Maryland
National Guard who begged to be sent overseas after the September 11,2001,
terrorist attacks was one of 12 service members killed Saturday when a
Black Hawk helicopter crashed north of Baghdad, Iraq, military officials
said yesterday.

Command Sergeant Major Roger Haller, 49, served
as the highest-ranking enlisted leader in a training unit at Camp Fretterd
near Reisterstown before being assigned to the National Guard Bureau, the
military's liaison with state militias, and deployed to Afghanistan.

Although the Maryland National Guard declined
to provide any information about Sergeant Major Haller because the Pentagon
had not confirmed his death, Major General Bruce F. Tuxill, the Guard's
adjutant general for Maryland, sent out an internal e-mail saying "with
an extremely heavy heart," that the Annapolis-area resident had been killed
in the crash.

"He just thought it was important to
have people fight for the freedoms that we take for granted," said Sandra
Hockman, the ex-wife of Sergeant Major Haller and the mother of his two
daughters and son.

His eldest daughter, Morgan Haller, 21, told
the Associated Press that her father repeatedly asked his superiors to
deploy him overseas after the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, eventually
getting his wish after Thanksgiving last year when he was sent to Afghanistan.

Sergeaant Major Haller worked in construction
and as a plumber before returning to the Guard full time.

"He was so excited. He still asked us if it
was OK. I said, 'It's something you love. I'm not going to tell you no,'"
Morgan Haller said. "We knew what the consequences were in him being over
there. When you grow up in a military life your whole life, you know those
things can happen, and you're better prepared for it than most people."

Of her father's military assignments, Morgan
Haller said: "He just said he was going over there to fix other people's
messes, and that's about it."

Family members told the AP that Sergeant Major
Haller was a motorcycle enthusiast who taught his daughters how to hunt
and fish. He enjoyed taking his family traveling.

"Every summer, we would go to a different place,"
Kathryn Haller, 17, a high school senior, told the AP.

Sergeant Major Haller's son, Sergeant Daniel
Haller, 22, served tours in Afghanistan and Iraq and came home shortly
before his father was deployed, Ms. Hockman said.

According to military reports available online,
Sergeant Major Haller was serving as a human resources liaison for the
National Guard in Afghanistan, although it was unclear why he had gone
to Iraq when he died.

Ms. Hockman said that when family members learned
of Sergeant Major Haller's death, Morgan Haller did not initially believe
the news.

Sergeant Major Haller graduated with bachelor
degrees in political science and history from Fairmont State College in
West Virginia, where he met Ms. Hockman.

The youngest of five siblings, Sergeant Major
Haller was inspired to serve in the military by his father and uncle, who
both served tours in World War II in the Pacific theater, Ms. Hockman said.

He joined the National Guard in Virginia in
1981, and he and Ms. Hockman moved to the Eastern Shore in 1982. He served
out of Easton for the next 10 years, then Reisterstown and Arlington, Virginia.

Sergeant Major Haller had the choice of serving
a Middle East tour starting last month or in April, Ms. Hockman said. He
chose the first window because he wanted to be back to the Eastern Shore
in time to see his youngest daughter, 17, graduate this year from Cambridge-South
Dorchester High School.

Morgan and Kathryn Haller live with Ms. Hockman
in Cambridge.

The military has said little about the crash,
which came on one of the deadliest days of the Iraq war, when 25 service
members were killed.

Published accounts suggest that the helicopter
may have been shot down by a group of Sunni insurgents with connections
to al-Qaida.

Sergeant Major Haller never flinched at the
opportunity to serve his country, Ms. Hockman said.

"There are some people who would say: 'There's
no way I can do that.' Roger was another kind of person. He would say:
'Sign me up, I'm the guy."
Interment ceremony set for 12 killed in crash4 October 2007

Twelve soldiers who were killed on January
20, 2007, when their UH-60 Black Hawk helicopter crashed in Baghdad will
be honored during a group interment at Arlington National Cemetery.